Rep. Sims Chief of Staff Mason Lane clarified that Ambassador Kennedy reached out after recognizing Sims’ regional and national work with civil rights.

During his week-long trip, Rep. Sims will tour Osaka and Tokyo, completing a litany of human-rights advocacy tasks: meeting with students, conversing with forward-thinking attorneys on the issue of disability rights, consulting with members of Japan’s legislature and eventually wrapping it all up with a speech at the Tokyo American Embassy alongside Ambassador Kennedy. Sims will embark on his trip this weekend.

The cherry on top of his human-rights sundae, Rep. Sims will introduce a resolution when he returns to the House on Dec. 9 that officially cements Dec. 10 as “International Human Rights Day” in Pennsylvania. The point: to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.